“Democratic Socialism is a Scam”

This is an annotated summary of Democratic Socialism is a Scam, by Giancarlo Sopa, an article at Quillette. The Cuban-American starts and ends his essay by declaring that Obama “is no socialist”, which might surprise whatever (if anything) is left of Newsweek, and lauds the Scandinavian-style welfare state. Not the most endearing start, I grant you.

Be that as it may, his sights are set firmly on Comrade Princess Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and his phaser is set to “kill”.

Sopa’s mother was an immigrant who worked hard and made good, eventually starting her own small business. “Given our humble immigrant roots, student loan debt, and monthly medical expenses, you’d figure that democratic socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would appeal to us—but they do not. Instead, they’re eerily reminiscent of the left-wing populists that millions in my community fled,” he writes. The author was “raised in a community built by the victims of socialism”, and his grandfather “died as a political prisoner for opposing some of the very same ideas being peddled by the socialists du jour,” referencing the usual Hollywood and DNC-state media idiots.

How do they try to put lipstick on this pig? Comrade Ocasio-Cortez, her Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) colleagues, and her media allies “are hoping that Americans confuse them for Nordic social democrats.” But…

When I presented a team of Norwegian economists with a summary written by Vox of DSA’s economic ideas, eleven out of the 12 indicated the views would fall on the “far-left/fringe” end of Norway’s political spectrum.

It won’t surprise you that the author finds DSA’s philosophy more in line with Castro’s Cuba and Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro. Furthermore,

The problem is not, as some say, that “democratic socialism” has not been tried and that only they know how to get it right; it’s that, by design, it makes economies and societies susceptible to totalitarianism. Just like 1959 Castro and 1998 Chavez, U.S. socialists stress their commitment to democracy, but human nature is a stubborn thing. Why should Americans trust that America’s socialists would be any more willing to relinquish power than their ideological brethren in Latin America and across the world? Indeed, it is odd that those who argue President Trump has authoritarian tendencies, are often the same people who want to give the federal government even more power over our economy.

I admit that, during the first half or two-thirds of the Republican primaries, I despised Trump, and saw him as a Mussolini wannabe. But I have to say that if Trump really wants to be Benito II, he’s been going about it all wrong.